Saaristolaisleipä, literally translated to archipelago bread, Is a traditional Finnish rye bread. This recipe isn’t completely loyal to the traditional recipes, the most notable difference being the addition of cocoa powder. The bread is rather dense and relatively sweet with a slight bitter twinge. It pairs really well with more savory toppings, like smoked salmon, scrambled eggs or simply plain butter.

The active work time for this recipe isn’t that much (especially if you use a stand mixer), but it does have a lot of passive time. The dough takes 90 minutes for proofing, and another 120 minutes for baking. Because of the different texture of the bread, it keeps pretty well without drying, as long as it’s stored properly.

• 25g fresh yeast
• 400ml buttermilk
• 1dl malts
• 0.5dl dark syrup
• 0.5dl brown sugar
• 1.5dl rye flour
• 3dl wheat flour
• 1dl wheat bran
• 1tbsp coco powder

1. Heat buttermilk to room temperature and then, in a large bowl, add in the buttermilk, yeast and the malts.
2. Once the yeast has dissolved, add in the dark syrup and the brown sugar. Mix to combine.
3. Mix the flours, wheat bran and coco powder together. Add the flour mixture into the buttermilk in batches.
4. Knead the bread in the bowl until the dough starts to come together. The dough for this bread is rather wet , but the texture will change a bit as you knead it.
5. leave to rise covered for ~90 minutes, until doubled.
6. Butter and flour a bread tin, and heat the oven to 175°C.
7. Pour the dough into the bread tin and bake for 90 minutes.
8. Combine half coffee and half dark syrup. Glaze the top of the bread with the coffee syrup, cover with tin foil and return to the oven for 30 minutes.
9. After cooking, allow the bread to cool in the tin for a short while before turning it over onto a cooling rack.